There's A Cricket Pitch On Top Of The M25

The roaring smog of the M25 doesn't sit too well with the bucolic image of an English cricket pitch — yet there's a cricket pitch sitting right on top of London's orbital motorway.

Between junctions 26 and 27 of the M25 is the Bell Common Tunnel, a 470m long stretch of... well, tunnel, built between 1982 and 1984. Constructing this stretch of the ring road was a problem; it has Epping Forest to one side, and a settlement to the other side — so it was decided that the best option was to build the motorway under the existing land.

Even though a solution was found, the club still had to relocate for five years while the tunnel was constructed in the 1980s. The Department of Transport then reinstated the ground, and the club resumed its old position.

Motorists, fear not. Your windscreen is perfectly safe — the pitch is far enough from the edge of the tunnel roof, and thickly hedged, that wayward balls are an impossibility.

Fancy watching a cricket match on top of a motorway? Keep an eye on the club's event schedule for details of upcoming matches.